- Sara Dietschy rhymes with peachy on Twitter
asked me to talk about delegation.
On the one hand, I know delegation is incredibly important.
On the other hand, I know that I'm not perfect at it.
I was 28 when I became a founder for the first time.
While I had managed people before,
it was sort of the first time that I felt total ownership.
And I don't think I did it well.
I distinctly remember sitting down
with one of my direct reports.
He looked at me and said,
"Garry, I've never felt more disrespected
in my professional career."
(record scratching)
And that was a wake-up call.
How did I get there?
Well, that's what we're going to talk about today.
My hope is that by walking you through a few useful tools
and telling you the story of how I got it wrong, well,
you have a very strong shot of getting it right.
Let's get started.
You have a finite number of hours in the day.
You need to always decide what should you be doing
with that time?
Well, before having kids, all my time was mine.
When I lost an hour, well, I could sleep less.
I could pay myself last.
Now that I have a family, I have to pay myself first.
So that brings us to delegation.
What should you be doing,
and what should other people be doing?
The answer for managers is pretty simple.
You should be doing only the things
nobody else on your team can do.
Now, there's a lot to figure out
because this also has to do with how you think about time.
I'm 39 now, but when I was 14, all I wanted to do was work.
I loved the idea of being paid
to sit in front of a computer,
and as luck would have it, I did find a way to get paid.
I started off as a consultant.
I first got paid $7 an hour, then $20 an hour.
When you're selling your time,
you have a finite amount of earning potential
and you have very little time.
We're all going to die after all.
Here's Naval talking
on the Joe Rogan podcast recently about this.
- Okay, no one's going to pay me
more than what I think I'm worth.
So what am I worth?
So I picked an hourly rate for myself that I was worth,
and I said, I'm never going to squander my time
for less than this.
Originally, it was 500 bucks an hour,
then I upgraded to 5,000 bucks an hour.
You know, it's ludicrous.
- It makes you realize how important
building a team and delegation actually is.
If you want to own equity, instead of selling your time,
you've got to build something.
And sometimes that's code.
Sometimes it's a brand.
But really, who is it that truly makes all of those things?
If you're doing it right, it's your team.
Your team will make all of those things.
Andrew Carnegie said, "You must be a lazy man
if it takes you 10 hours to do a day's work.
What I do is get good men and I never give them orders.
My directions do not go beyond suggestions."
Well, that's easy for Andrew Carnegie, you say,
but how do you actually do it?
Here's the simplest version of this.
Pure tactics.
How do you get a given task properly delegated?
Well, first off, you've got to tell them
what needs to be done.
What are my objectives?
That's the O in OKR.
We're not mind readers.
Don't assume people will do things
without you talking to them about it.
You got to be clear about what you want.
You don't have to say exactly how to do it,
and in fact, being too prescriptive about that
may verge on actually micromanagement.
Second, say why.
It helps people to have context about a given thing.
Third, tell people how to measure completion.
Is it realistic? Is it attainable?
Can we agree on them before they start?
Those are the key results.
That's the KR in OKR.
Next, what's the priority?
Get buy in about whether or not someone believes
that this is something that needs to happen at this time.
Just because you need it
doesn't mean it's something that they should do.
And if not, why not?
Now, if you're the manager,
the next thing you need to do is clear the way.
Make sure that they have the authority to get things done
and make sure that the people around them
know that that person has that authority.
This is easy to forget.
And as the manager, often you're the only person
who can make sure that expectation is set.
Finally, check in on it.
Figure out a timeframe and discuss follow ups.
If it's important to do it now,
it's also really important that you follow up.
Make sure you check in.
That's a surprising number of steps that are necessary,
but it's easy to forget these things.
And when you forget, you cause problems.
So that's the tactical side.
You have to crawl to walk.
If you have to constantly oversee
exactly what people are doing, that's not delegation.
That's micromanagement.
And honestly, A, it doesn't scale, and B, people hate it.
It's bad for everyone involved.
Here's some ways to figure out
whether or not you're micromanaging.
One way to tell is if you're always frustrated
with the output.
You're always asking to be CC'd on certain emails
or you want more frequent updates on where things stand.
It's not always that you as the manager need to change,
you might have the wrong people in the role.
Or even deeper, sometimes your values and goals
might not align with that of your direct reports.
Either way, you've got some tough decisions to make.
One option is to back off.
If there's no consequence,
that's the easiest kind of micromanagement to stop.
It's a no op.
Just stop, and you might find that
the micromanagement you thought was necessary
isn't actually necessary.
Or finally, the toughest part will be
making the decision to make a management change.
Sometimes there are situations where there's no way out.
(whirring)
If delegation is the tactical level,
you might find that you're trying to address the problem
at the wrong level.
People micromanage frequently
when they aren't getting the outcomes they want.
And sure, sometimes the outcomes are bad
because someone is lazy or not conscientious,
but if you've hired well,
the more likely thing is you're just not aligned.
You're not on the same page with the other person.
And what you think is important just isn't important
to the other person on your team.
You got to ask some questions at that point.
Go to the person and say, "Well, what are we here for?
Why are we working on this?
And how do we want to do business?
Are there things we do or don't want to do?"
If you ask those questions, you'll get the right answers.
(whooshing)
(gentle music)
Look, guys, delegation is really, really hard.
Back when I had that direct report who absolutely hated me,
you know what?
I didn't nail it.
I just didn't get it right at all.
I did micromanage and we weren't aligned,
and I didn't even ask the questions
that were necessary to become aligned.
And that's the tragedy of it.
I could have done the right things,
and as the leader, that was actually my job.
And that's really the difficulty of being a manager,
of being a leader, or being a founder.
It really does fall to us, and that's okay.
Tomorrow, we can get better.
Tomorrow, I will be a better manager and so will you.
One of my favorite quotes about management
is actually from Ray Dalio.
He said, "I need to be a conductor of people,
many of whom, if not all,
can play their instruments better than I can.
And that if I were a really great conductor,
I would also be able to find a better conductor than me
and hire him or her.
My ultimate goal is to create a machine
that works so well that I can sit back
and just watch the beauty happen."
When I think about it,
that's the core thing that a great founder
and a great manager and a great leader can do.
I know it's in you, I know it's in me,
we just got to keep showing up.
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I really appreciate you taking the time
to watch all the way to the end,
and, you know, I am taking DMs on Instagram @garrytan.
You can also leave comments here.
If there are things you want me to talk about,
please leave a comment down below or hit me on Instagram.
I'm also happy to talk to you about
whatever's going on in your life right now.
I hope you're well. Be safe.
I'll see you next week.
(gentle music)